'It Takes Blood, Sweat, And Tears To Rebuild Every Year,' Thousands Of Families Relive Displacement As Yamuna Swells

Ajay (25), a daily-wage mason, used to earn ₹900 a day, but now he can’t go to work. He lives in a white tent at the Rahat Shivir relief camp set up by the government beneath the Mayur Vihar Phase One metro station. On a charpaai, surrounded by his family’s scattered belongings, he recalls coming to Delhi six years ago to earn a living. His voice is low, and talks quietly about the situation the community is facing, and half-smiles flicker across his face as he tries to hide the pain of losing the shelter.

“I cycle 10 km daily, it takes me 40 minutes each way. If I were to go now, it would take twice as long. In a time when we have lost our homes, how can I think of work? I chose to stay with my family instead of earning, and it is costing me,” says Ajay.

The camps were built after the Yamuna’s rising waters forced people to leave their makeshift homes along its banks.

Most of the camp’s residents are labourers and house helpers. In normal times, they would have travelled to their jobs across the city, but now they are tied up with their families and are trying to save what little they can after flood waters have swept through their homes. For the adults, life is at a standstill, where the fight for survival leaves no room for anything more, whereas the children, still youthfully resilient, barefoot, run around the camp.

The children’s school life has come to a pause since their families’ displacement. The adults talk about how they barely managed to escape, leaving behind essentials, books, kids’ school uniforms, and other valuables.

Inside the camp, a water tanker is parked, with a generator also installed nearby. At a food stall inside the camp, kadhi chawal is being provided to women and children as they stand in line, with empty plates in hand, worried and still in shock over their losses. The line inches forward at snail's pace. A government worker walks around spraying mosquito repellant smoke inside the camp and outside, too— a reminder of the diseases the monsoon brings. People are tending to their cattle, while others gather around a truck unloading fodder. Small shops have also come up inside the camp, run by the same residents who had them near the riverbank, hoping to keep earning something, even if a little.

Sonam (30) worries about her husband, who has to keep working despite the conditions.

Sonam, whose husband is a gig rider on duty from nine am to nine pm, says she is thankful the government has shifted them to the camp, but she cannot forget that they have lost their homes.

“Do they know the blood, sweat and tears it takes for us to rebuild every year when the Yamuna rises? And now there are rumours our jhuggis will be demolished. What happened to Jahan Jhuggi Wahan Makaan? Where will we poor go? Don’t we have the right to live respectfully? And if it is extremely necessary to remove us, then the government should give us a place to live. We may be poor, but we are also residents of the country,” she says.

Around 10 km away, the old iron bridge, which is usually thumping with traffic, has come to a standstill in one direction as it has been shut down due to the swelling of the Yamuna, while the other is loaded with the cattle of residents who live beneath it.

Shahana Khatoon (55) has been living under the bridge for the last 30 years. A vegetable seller, she earns Rs 700–800 every day.

“I hope my jhuggi bears this flood, that’s all I can do, right? This monsoon has always brought us pain, destruction, and suffering. No one cares about the poor. I voted for the BJP because they said they would give Rs 2,500 and provide home, but where is my home? CM Rekha visited this place, just roamed around with so many bodyguards plus 10 cars behind her. I don’t know what she plans to do, but till then, we are stranded,” she says.

Another resident, Mohar Singh, who is also a vegetable seller, says he came to Delhi in 1982 and has been living under the bridge since then. “I have seen Indira Gandhi walking on these roads with barely any bodyguards before she passed away. I have seen the era of Sheila Dixit and Kejriwal and everything that Delhi has been through. And now that I see the start of the BJP, I have no hope. Be it any government, they all do nothing except make big promises. I am a resident of Savda Ghevra. We were removed from our Jhuggi Jhopdhis in 2006 and were shifted there. That place has no livelihood; hence, I don’t live there anymore,” he says.

On Tuesday, with high volumes of water being released from Wazirabad and Hathnikund barrages, the Yamuna in Delhi crossed the evacuation mark of 206 metres for the first time this year. On the same day, Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta inspected the affected areas along the Yamuna and visited families staying in relief camps.

Highlighting the government’s preparedness, she posted on X: “Complete arrangements for relief and essential facilities are being ensured for families affected by heavy rainfall and rising water levels. The Delhi government is continuously monitoring the situation 24×7. Water levels are being monitored every moment, and with extensive preparations, we are fully prepared to deal with any situation.”

In 2023, the Yamuna had then risen to 208.66 metres, wherein the water, as usual, came into low-lying areas all over, and thousands had been evacuated.

According to an analysis of the 2023 floods by the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People (SANDRP), a report in 2024 warned that the city hadn’t recovered much after the 2023 floods. SANDRP identified three main triggers behind the 2023 deluge; intense five-day rainfall between July 9–13, flawed hydrological discharge data at Hathnikund, Wazirabad and Okhla barrages, and widespread encroachments and muck deposits across the Yamuna floodplain. The group argued that government probes, including a parliamentary review, have not addressed these systemic gaps and called for an independent evaluation to develop actionable solutions.

Separately, the Joint Flood Management Study of River Yamuna (2024), constituted by the Ministry of Jal Shakti and led by the Central Water Commission, found that five-day cumulative rainfall in 2023 was 24–43 per cent higher than in 1978, with the Yamuna at the Old Delhi Railway Bridge touching 208.66 metres. The committee examined return-period floods up to 500 years, river carrying capacity, and the functioning of barrages. It concluded that encroachments worsen water congestion and recommended their removal, better gate operation, coordinated state action, and stronger institutional mechanisms. It also assessed storage options but flagged feasibility and cost concerns.

But as the Yamuna rises with the monsoon rains, displacing nearly 10,000 people along its banks, it raises questions about why evacuations from low-lying areas have become an annual occurrence. What measures have earlier governments taken? Were they sufficient, and what steps will the current government introduce to prevent the situation from recurring next year?